* Posts by Roland6

10619 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2010

UK schools slap a hold on facial scanning of children amid fierce criticism

Roland6 Silver badge

> Can't be charging a child the same for a full hot meal, cake and fruity drink as a child who just wants a sandwich.

The school my kids went to charged a flat rate, it meant the child's meal decision was driven by their need and fancy rather than saving a penny or two. It didn't take long for the school to work out a decent menu so that most days kids took the hot meal option.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "intended to speed up the delivery of lunches from an average of 25 seconds to five"

It is notable that the LibDems - probably the main political party campaigning for free school meals for all have not uttered a word about how all this could be avoided by simply providing free school meals to all...

Unvaccinated and working at Apple? Prepare for COVID-19 testing 'every time' you step in the office

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Experts

@codejunky

Don't disagree

>There seems to be no desire to end this just as there was no desire to end the war on terror.

The worrying ramification is there seems to be no desire to actually stand up and say there will be no end to the 'war' and thus start the debate about how are we going to live, what powers are actually necessary and who gets to use them.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Experts

> So if we aint getting rid of covid (not a shock) then when do we get to live our lives again?

We don't, I thought that was obvious; welcome to the post-CoViD19 world.

The big unknown going forward is just how long immunity (in any form) lasts and thus whether boosters become part of the normal preventative landscape.

However, I would hope some serious scientific research is quietly going on so that we can better understand the transmission vectors and what mitigations best disrupt them. The problem is, I can see the government turning off the sequencing machines - to save money to spend on projects like HS2 and Trident refurbishment., and demanding the construction of energy-efficient buildings with Sars-Cov-2 friendly distribution systems...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Experts

Re: Fashionable nonsense

Well a 20 year old book seems to have hit the nail on the head:

Quantum Computing — a term that sounds erudite but is complete gibberish.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Unfair dismissal

>In general that is not legal and if a worker is dismissed for these reasons it would be an unfair dismissal

In general if a worker were to be dismissed for these reasons it would be because the management have failed to engage with HR (and legal) and so not put in place and then adhered to a CoViD ways of working transformation programme.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: @Potemkine!

Codejunky you were being deliberately ambiguous; but you are right they really only differ in intent of the perpetrator and the awareness of the patient/victim to being jabbed.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: @Potemkine!

>"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one."

And it was effectively Asimov's 4th law of robotics and proceeded to write several SF books about the uneasy ramifications of it.

Roland6 Silver badge

>it has not been assessed

Which is also why in the first instance pregnant women were advised not to get vaccinated, however, now there is sufficient data to show that it is definitely in the mothers interest to get vaccinated and a growing body of evidence that vaccination doesn't negatively affect unborn babes.

Roland6 Silver badge

>Pfizer wanes/decays to that level in about 4mths. Previously-infected people apparently also have their protection wane, reaching 50% around 16mths after first infection.

Been watching too many second rate anti-vax YouTube videos.

https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/feature/everything-you-need-to-know-about-covid-19-vaccines

Roland6 Silver badge
Pint

Re: @Howard Sway

>Bring you own sandwich in and stop moaning.

Well, with all those Working from/at Home there are going to be some spare desks - plenty of room (and power) for an "under-the-desk" hydroponic cultivation system...

Icon: I understand, (from my student days), that broom cupboards often have an atmosphere conducive to beer brewing...

Who would have thought workers left to their own devices could find exciting new uses for all the HQ office space... :)

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: where does it end ?

That is a problem with many safety measures. Many drove like idiots before seatbelts became compulsory in part because they didn't know or care about the risks. Others in now having a safer driving experience create new risks by driving in ways they either expect others to void them or in which the safety devices will work without fail....

Roland6 Silver badge

>You mean like this?

One step at a time...

Yes, in general having natural immunity is better than vaccinated immunity. However, there are two big problems. Firstly the gaining of natural immunity, which as the article you link to shows is not without considerable risk to the individual, and secondly the duration of any such immunity.

From what I have read, an individual's level of natural immunity is directly related to the degree to which they have CoViD - get a bad dose and you could be looking at 6 months of natural immunity, get a mild dose and that could be 4 weeks. At least with the vaccinated immunity, there seems to be some consistency and a much slower decline in immunity.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Priority

>As an aside, why are booster still using the original strain and not Delta as a basis?

That's because Pfizer and Moderna have been shown to be highly effective at blocking the Delta variant and currently they are the ones that have been approved, that show such a high efficacy.

There is another vaccine currently under going trials and approval that is 'reprogrammable'. This is seen as a gamechanger as only the 'reprogrammed' payload will need to go through a much shorter approvals process resulting in the more responsive production of vaccines better targeted at mutations currently in the wild.

IPSE: More than a third of freelancers have quit contracting since IR35 reforms

Roland6 Silver badge

>It's actually down to whether the client wants the work to be done by you personally or your company (and by that it means by anyone your company would provide). If the service provided is personal then in HMRC mind it is in scope...

Interestingly, from my experience over several decades, that still largely applies to contracts with the big integrators, the only advantage the big boys have is a warm feeling that they have the reserves to resolve any delivery problems that may arise...

Roland6 Silver badge

> I should have given examples of the Statements of Work I am seeing which is things like "Consultant required for desktop refresh project".

Understand what you mean. I've found it useful to cultivate a relationship with HR who (as permanent staff) should better placed to assist departments on an on-going basis with the scoping and drafting of outside IR35 SoW's (although I can offer the services of my HR associates ...). Given the example, the first piece of Consultancy I would quote for would be the drawing up of a SoW for the desktop refresh project, mandating the involvement of HR experts with IR35 awareness in the process.

But even then, I can see some being so in fear of HMRC, they will still deem a piece of IT-related work to be inside IR35, even though they have no problems engaging cleaners outside of IR35.

Roland6 Silver badge

Well all of those tasks could be performed by an employee, just like all tasks being performed by contractors; the issue is about how the task is packaged up and contracted for and whether HMRC (after the event) agrees with the arrangements...

Personally, I don't do simple T&M, I always do defined workpackage-based work, which may be on a T&M basis but will have agreed deliverables and milestones.

The art is learning how to respond to clients who will treat you like an employee eg. while you are here can you look at this...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Forgot NI? @elsergiovolador

I thought it was all about liability (to the agency); by getting contractors to be Ltd's the agency significantly reduced their contractual risk exposure and could also be all sloppy shouldered about tax liabilities.

In some respects, it is hardly surprising the agencies have again played fast-and-loose and off-shored umbrella companies, to the detriment of HMRC.

Nobody cares about DAB radio – so let's force it onto smart speakers, suggests UK govt review

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Flogging a dead horse

>and info on traffic jams, but we have Waze and its peers to provide some of that info now.

Well, if the local radio stream was in DAB, perhaps Waze et al. would be able to listen in to the traffic reports... On a regular run between the East Midlands and South West, Waze on its own leaves a lot to be desired - thanks to local radio I was able to totally avoid a major road closure (not notified to Google/Waze etc.); I got home and parked on my drive, yet Waze still wanted me to turn around and retrace my route for several tens of miles, because it was quicker than some other route back to my drive...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Sorry, why is this about DAB?

Things sort of make sense.

By requiring the use of DAB, there is potentially no new licensing requirement, also device operators simply grab the free-to-air DAB feed. I can see the logic, but given DAB always was of poorer audio quality to FM, perhaps like digital TV, they should also be promoting an upgrade to higher quality audio standards.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Sorry, why is this about DAB?

>“make internet radio available to anyone who wants it on their devices”.

The recommendation is:

" to ensure radio stations and radio and audio content can be easily found and is discoverable by users of voice assistant platforms"

I thought "Alexa play Radio 2" was sufficiently simple, or am I missing something?

It's 'near-impossible to escape persistent surveillance' by American ISPs, says FTC

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: This isn't hard, and it's not nuanced.

Trouble is increasingly company's don't permit you to access their products if you select any options that go against their commercial interests...

As we are seeing with Windows 11, no MS account and thus opt-in for US standard data collection, you won't be able to use W11.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Shared?

You only need to look at the May 2021 Signal Ad campaign on Facebook to see that whilst FB didn't sell any user data to Signal, it gave Signal sufficient keywords to enable Signal to target specific users.

Not just deprecated, but deleted: Google finally strips File Transfer Protocol code from Chrome browser

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "frankly, Google and pals would rather users opted for a dedicated transfer app"

>"The big question is, has anyone actually seen FTPS in the wild?"

This question really needs to be caveated with:

In a use case that required the usage of a web browser rather than a functionally specific piece of software that can be more easily sandboxed by the OS

About the only time I worry about file transfer protocols is when I have to reset a bricked appliance and so am using the factory reset TELNET/TFTP interface to load a clean firmware image.

NHS Digital exposes hundreds of email addresses after BCC blunder copies in entire invite list to 'Let's talk cyber' event

Roland6 Silver badge

But why were they using email in the first place?

I thought everyone these days used some cloud-based "event booking and attendee communication as a service" offering, so the event organiser gets nowhere near an actual email client..

IBM US staff must be fully vaccinated by December – or go back to bed without pay

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Vaccine skepticism: A problem fueled by ubiquitous data and rarefied understanding

>when your parachute opens.

something it isn't guaranteed to always do...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Hmmm @Draco

>yellow card data

Yes, as an event organiser it is quite interesting...

For an event the size of the London Marathon for example, event organisation includes planning for heart attacks and deaths, just because statistically with that number of people, several are going to happen even before taking into consideration the elevation of risk the runners experience (for which the London Marathon now have many years of data to draw upon).

Roland6 Silver badge

Because of the scale and speed of vaccination and the reporting of possible side effects, for probably the first time in human history we have some of the safest vaccines around. So the connection between AZ and the known to be rare blood clots was established within weeks and mitigated, rather than years. Yes this was only 4~6 deaths per million, however medical science has been able to move rapidly and select other vaccines for high risk groups.

However, for the nutters and parts of the media the perception is the risk of actually having a side effect from a vaccine is much higher than the risk of contracting CoViD - which as we know is just a mild dose of flu... I think there is probably sufficient data to show there is a significant statistical connection between being an anti-vac and having a higher risk of dying from CoViD19.

Roland6 Silver badge

>Don’t make me wear a life vest because you can’t swim.

No, I'm making you wear a life vest so that if you fall in the water you will float, others don't have to watch you struggle and risk their lives recovering your body from the bottom of the lake.

Hitting underground pipes and cables costs the UK £2.4bn a year. We need a data platform for that, says government

Roland6 Silver badge

Its not clear whether Lsbud are involved in the project, or whether Atkins are expected to deliver something different. given the timescales I would have thought usage of the pre-existing Lsbud database was a given, but then we do have a Conservative government...

Roland6 Silver badge

>One of the other issues is that alot of services are in unknown locations..

Another is that they aren't in the location the plans or system says they are.

A laugh I have is that my house is 3ft closer to the road than indicated on the plan, but it is in the right place if you use the geographic data off the plan - I know this because the OS surveyed it.

The problem was that the road was built 3ft off the plan location, given they had already done the foundations for my house the only option was to build the house between mine and the road 3ft closer to my house, but failed to amend the plan... Result neighbour thought the boundary fence should be located 3ft into my land rather than being located where it was...

Reg scribe spends week being watched by government Bluetooth wristband, emerges to more surveillance

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: I'll be tracked almost everywhere I go...

> so it is advisable to rely on the information provided by medical experts in the relevant field.

Trouble is, in the UK the medical experts were being swayed by the politicians, they failed to see the contradiction in their argument about not vaccinating U16's against CoViD and the established rational for vaccinating children (over the age of 1) against Mumps and Rubella.

Electric car makers ready to jump into battery recycling amid stuttering supply chains

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

>A small solar panel would make up for that pretty easily.

You would have thought, but my neighbours Jaguar begs to differ.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

>You shouldn't be - vampire drain should only account for ~1 mile a day at worst.

Not got a 'modern' car then.

My neighbour's car was constantly on trickle charge during lockdown because of all the electrics that won't shutdown...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

>Interesting that we don't even come close to the max rating per household at any given time.

We may not, but we do max. out the grid at times like... half-time...

I note the UK government has already proposed limits on the times at which EVs can be charged at domestic charging points. Which would suggest there are some systemic issues with the large-scale charging of EVs via the domestic grid.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

>The cracker, however, is tax. As you cannot tell wall power from fast charger power I suspect you'll be facing road pricing.

Well, there is metadata...

My newly installed charging point is intelligent, only cars I have registered to it can use it and the charging point will only offer electricity to the car according to the schedule and rules I have specified.

With smart meters (I suspect integration with car charging points isn't possible with current generation of UK smart meters :) ), it is relatively simple to have different tariffs...

As for road pricing, well I expect overall we will be paying more (in taxes/duties) to the government and its contracted agencies than we are today.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

>Which would still make fossil fuel power generation the cheaper option followed by nuclear. Increased reliance on windfarms/solar just increases our reliance on gas and massively overcharges us all for energy.

@codejunky - nice dig at UK government policy for the last 30+ years...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "GM is projecting an all-electric future..."

>I'm fascinated by petrol heads who think that recharging must be an exact analogue of petrol stations.

That's the model being sold by EV fans!

A petrol station is just a static charging point, costs etc. mean that there are relatively few of them; but petrol could be delivered to people's homes, just like coal, heating oil, gas, water and electricity...

Personally, the hybrid is a good fit to where we are today. Interestingly, I suspect an ICE designed to generate electricity rather than horsepower would be much smaller than what s under the typical bonnet today.

Computer scientists at University of Edinburgh contemplate courses without 'Alice' and 'Bob'

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: more pc crap

>Pity whoever came up with the stupid idea didnt actually read how the Peter and Jane books work to teach kids reading and copy at least the idea because the chip and kipper books fail to repeat things and fail dismally to teach kids to read.

Also, they failed to read and understand Dr Seuss

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: more pc crap

>Peter and Jane books

They were Janet and John in my day...

Give us your biometric data to get your lunch in 5 seconds, UK schools tell children

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Nutshell

>The problem with cards is that they'll get lost, likely multiple times a week if my teenagers are anything to go by!

My children's cards got them access to the building (e-register) as well as their use as payment cards. They did go through a period when cards got 'lost' - strangely not at school but somewhere between leaving school in the evening and leaving the house to go to school the next morning. The inconvenience of not having a card (and the paying of £5 cash to get a new one) seemed to be sufficient to encourage them to take better care...

How Windows NTFS finally made it into Linux

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: I can only warn

>It once wiped (I had a backup) around 500 MB after a filesystem check

What did you expect when you use:

chkdsk c: /r

?

Want to check out Windows 11 but don't want to buy a new PC? Here's how to bypass the hardware requirements

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Even better....don't bother yet!

Missed one? I remember reading somewhere that MS would offer W11 as a 'optional' feature update to W10 users in the same way they were offered 21H1 and 20H2...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Even better....don't bother yet!

>Tell that to the people who run the payroll or cut your paychecks

They will be using Sage... So unlikely to be running W11 (or anything more recent than Office 365/2016 32-bit for sometime yet...

One-character bug gives away $90m in COMP tokens – recipients can keep 10% or consider themselves doxxed

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Are the tokens convertible to cash somehow?

>Worse they could do for a non US resident/citizen who isn't subject to taxes is

Extradition and charged with wire fraud...

Got enterprise workstations and hope to run Windows 11? Survey says: You lose. Over half the gear's not fit for it

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "an upgrade will have to happen in the coming months or years"

Trouble is that the typical consumer home PC these days only connects out through a NAT firewall, so is only accessible to the outside world by actors misusing web sessions or sending email attachments. (Okay if the PC has a built in mobile modem things are slightly different, but these seem to have gone out of fashion).

So actually what is needed are good browser-based protections: No Script, Adblock etc. and email attachment scanners...

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: I'm not sure how well i'd do with NT4 and things like manually assigning IRQ's

From what I remember this issue wasn't so much the IRQ's but shuffling the various memory areas so everything fitted.

IKEA: Cameras were hidden in the ceiling above warehouse toilets for 'health and safety'

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Where were they pointing?

>Therefore the cameras and tiles were arranged to make that possible.

"The cameras were only ever intended to film activity in the roof space or corridors."

Which would suggest the cameras were attached to a smoke detection system: smoke detected, member of security goes and investigates...

As has been noted by others no one is actually saying where the cameras were actually pointing (or what they were connected to), and if mounted above the ceiling tiles just what view of the users of the toilets they actually had.

I suspect once all the facts are known, the case will fall into the same category as 5G causing CoViD.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Where were they pointing?

>Given that the red light on the camera was visible from below, and that red lights on CCTV cameras tend to be on the front of the camera... I suspect the camera was pointing roughly in the direction from which the light was observed ...

Not at all. The front mounted LED typically isn't shielded; the camera's I've installed the dome of the LED cover is proud of faceplate and so it is visible within a 180 degree arc.

Also note how the camera was discovered:

"The discovery was made last week when the lights were switched off. A member of staff spotted what appeared to be a small red light between the panels of a suspended ceiling."

Firstly the lights were off so the red glow (and its reflection) of an LED would be more visible, secondly it was seen between (suspended) ceiling panels ie. through a crack, note it wasn't until the source was investigated that a camera was discovered. I suspect that if the camera really was intended to pick up users of the facilities, the discoverer would have seen and thus reported a camera lens hole in the ceiling tiles.

But then that does assume the "infrared light" seen was the camera LED and not light being used to illuminate the ceiling void so that the camera can perform its smoke detection/void monitoring function.

'Quantum computer algorithms are linear algebra, probabilities. This is not something that we do a good job of teaching our kids'

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Wish you luck

Where there are two things: schools and what is taught. I think the original poster was implying that the Eton educated Conservatives see state schools as only needing to teach pupils how to be proles; failing to see that it is Eton that hasn't moved on since the days of empire...